Kamixlo – Angelico (Bala Club)

London-based electronic producer Kamixlo made his debut last year with his impressive ‘Demonico’ EP on Codes, and a year on, this second download only EP ‘Angelico’ on his own brand new Bala Club label offers up a powerful follow-up, offering up five new tracks alongside a remix from ‘Yeezus’ contributor Evian Christ. Alluding to its more beatific sounding title, Kamixlo himself apparently describes ‘Angelico’ as being more “happy and sweet” than its predecessor, though that’s something of a relative thing when you’re talking about tracks influenced by “Japanese wrestling, metal and industrial.” Either way, this EP certainly places the emphasis on maximality and extremes, with the frequencies testing the very edges of the mix.

For the most part the predominant influences are reggaeton and trap sounds fused with a grime aesthetic, the beats coming across as punishing and steel-edged as the pitched up vocals reach into the red. After the title track offers up an eerie intro that sees ominous industrial tones crunching away between what sounds like a field recorded conversation between two Latin American girls, ‘Bloodless Y’ sees the crashing percussion rolls locking in against swelling bass drops and sped-up and looped female baile funk vocals, before machine gun snare rolls send things rattling off into one of the most metallic takes on footwork I’ve heard in some time. Indeed, the swaggering off-step breakbeats call to mind the likes of The Bug given a footwork injection, with all of the signature trademarks of the genre given a coat of punishing armour.

By comparison, ‘Ayuda’ gets more spacious, sending vocal fragments stuttering against a backdrop of spidery snare crashes that gradually uncoils into a breakcore-esque barrage of kicks, snares and alarm tones, before ‘Ice2CU’ offers up what’s easily the weirdest moment here as a contorted alien-esque vocal sample squeals beneath clanging industrial hiphop rhythms and bursts of harsh noise, with Techno Animal particularly coming to mind as a similar reference point. Elsewhere, Evian Christ’s reworking of ‘Bloodless Y’ kicks the pace up a few notches as house diva vocal samples and airy pads battle for space with filtered vocals and jittering footwork rolls as relentless rave kickdrums power away beneath.